From Whence I Came
Writing
A lot of the songwriting I have been doing over the last couple of years has been an attempt to tap into the words and melodies that instinctively comes out when I play and sing a new song. In the past, I might have discarded the bits and pieces of words that came out when I sang a new song or more often, I was unable to look deeper into these words and find the true meaning or direction in them.
This is one of the songs that really reflects this new songwriting style as it basically wrote itself. From the moment I had the basic chord progression I was hearing the finer-picked electric guitar as well. You can hear both in this scratch recording I did as soon as I wrote it.
Also, in the scratch recording you can hear some of the final lyrics there including "from whence I came" which just happen to come out as I was playing those chords.
I would listen back to this scratch recording over and over both to the word fragments and overall mood of the song trying to get as full an understanding as possible what it was telling me.
When I sat down to write the words, I borrowed heavily from what I sang in that original creative moment which led me to understand what the song was about.
I wrote the song in summer 2008 in our first apartment in Prenzlauer Berg in old East Berlin. It was a hot day and the windows were open and you can hear a bit of street noise in the background of the original recording, Here is that scratch recording I made that day.
Recording
This was the first song we recorded for the album. Drummer Dave Hingerty and Bassist Peter Cheevers had flown over from Dublin to record with me. We spent the first day in the studio rehearsing seven of the eight songs they would play on. We had never played together before and the guys had only heard acoustic guitar and vocal stripped down versions of the songs.
After an excellent rehearsal day, we reconvened on Tuesday morning and began with "From Whence I Came". I had already decided that this should be the first track on the album so we knew we had to really go for it. It came surprisingly easy and with about 6 takes, we felt we finally captured the song's essence. The hardest part was the build up at the end. Fab had a clear idea of what this should sound like. He worked very hard with us to create a strong feeling of tension that doesn't let up. A build normally would go quickly and back into the beat but he got us to hold onto the tension of the build and to not let go throughout the whole outro.
Fab and I came back to this track a couple of weeks later and added the piano and electric guitars. I also re-recorded my vocals as the live version vocal was too live and loose for this track. We wanted a much more hushed approach to the singing.
Mixing
I think there are more mixes of this song than any other. Again, we felt the pressure to make this one extra strong since it leads off the album and sets the scene for what is to come. I was thrilled with the final results.
Track Information
Eric:
Acoustic Guitars (one live with the band and one overdubbed), Electric Guitars (Epiphone Les Paul & Fender Stratocaster), Lead Vocal, Backing Vocals (second verse, second chorus harmony and outro)
Fab:
Backing Vocals, Piano
Dave Hingerty:
Drums
Peter Cheevers:
Bass
Benoît Leseure:
Violin
Lyrics
From Whence I Came
I’m home again
From whence I came
The night is still
But the hurt remains
I open the door
And step inside
The fire’s still lit
But the flame has died
Chorus:
Once I hid away my hopes and dreams
‘Til I had to say goodbye
I felt a little like a drowning man
So I had to say goodbye
I had to say, I had to say goodbye
I’m counting up
The reasons why
The balance shifts
Between truth and lies
I hold in my hand
Our faded dreams
They’re withered and torn
But they never leave
Chorus:
Once I hid away my hopes and dreams
‘Til I had to say goodbye
I felt a little like a dying man
So I had to say goodbye
I used to find it hard to be myself so I had to say goodbye so I could fly, I could fly